The Code of Criminal Law Act

1. This Act shall be cited as the Code of Criminal Law Act. Its contents may be referred to as the Criminal Code.

Definitions and General Provisions

2. Hacking: Gaining or attempting to gain access to forum moderation or administrative controls by force.

3. Phishing: Gaining or attempting to gain forum controls or passwords by deception.

4. Spamming: Any action undertaken by persons to waste space on forums or to cause forums to crash by putting strain on the forum’s server.

5. Off-site property: Any forum, website or other property that is not found on the NationStates website and is maintained by a NationStates nation, organization, or region.

6. Crashing: Any action committed without proper authorization which could cause a forum to go out of service or lose information, including: deletion of posts, deletion of the forum, spamming content that violates the forum’s terms of use, or any other act of this kind.

7. Attempt: An accused carried out all necessary steps to commit a criminal offense as defined by law, but did not succeed in causing the desired result of the offense.

8. Any attempt to commit a high crime or a felony shall attract criminal liability. Attempted misdemeanors shall attract criminal liability only if expressly so provided by law. The mere planning of a criminal offense shall not attract criminal liability unless it rises to the level of conspiracy.

9. Criminal offenses shall be regularly punished by a ban of a duration as defined by law.

10. As a sole or additional punishment, the Court may for certain offenses also sentence the convicted to loss of ability to hold public office for a duration not exceeding the greater of one year or the maximum length of a ban prescribed for the offence.

High Crimes

11. There shall be no statute of limitations on high crimes.

12. Treason
(a) Levying war against Cynosure; or
(b) Seizing or using the power of any position gained in any fashion other than a lawful election or appointment; or
(c) Recklessly inciting another to commit treason

15. Election Fraud
(a) Committing the offence of administrative abuse in circumstances in which votes or information about voting is edited or deleted; or
(b) Harassment, persistent undesired contact, or other threatening conduct, intended to coerce a citizen to cast alter their vote in certain direction.

16. Espionage
(a) Collecting information unavailable to non-citizens of Cynosure with the intent to disclose them to a government, organization, institution or person outside of the Cynosure; or
(b) Joining institutions or governmental bodies of the Cynosure with the intent to acquire sensitive information for the purpose of unlawful disclosure.

Maximum sentence: Six month ban and/or loss of ability to hold public office per section 10 not exceeding six months.

Felonies

17. There shall be a three month statute of limitations on felonies.

18. Unlawful Disclosure of Classified Information
(a) Releasing or distributing classified information that is deemed protected or confidential in relevant legislation or executive order, by any manner of communication,
(b) to a party who is not authorized to view such information.

Maximum sentence: Six month ban and/or loss of ability to hold public office per section 10 not exceeding six months.

19. Subversion
(a) Inciting a citizen to commit an act of Espionage or Unlawful Disclosure; or
(b) Using the powers or privileges of an appointed or elected office as directed by a government, organization, institution or person outside of the Cynosure, thereby preparing, aiding or abetting an act of Treason, Sedition, Espionage, Unlawful Disclosure or Citizenship Fraud.

Maximum sentence: Six month ban and/or loss of ability to hold public office per section 10 not exceeding six months.

20. Citizenship Fraud
(a) Providing false or misleading information on the Citizenship Application form; or
(b) Providing false or misleading information in the course of a security check conducted by The Grand Master, a Master, the Councillor or any other regional official mandated or authorized to perform security checks.

Maximum sentence: Six month ban and/or loss of ability to hold public office per section 10 not exceeding six months. If somebody is convicted of Citizenship Fraud, the Court shall order their citizenship to be forfeited under section 9 of the Second Citizenship Act. They are allowed to reapply after serving their criminal sentence in full.

21. Administrative Abuse
Without lawful excuse–
(a) Deleting or editing a post or topic; or
(b) Unlawfully deleting or editing a forum account, or the information contained within;
(c) Unlawfully accessing another member account;
(d) Editing any laws;
(e) Altering or attempting to alter moderator or administrator logs;
(f) Refusing to submit administrator logs when a warrant is presented.

Maximum sentence: Three month ban.

22. Impersonation of a Government Official
Representing, attempting to represent, or claiming to represent Cynosure in any environment, domestic or foreign, without proper authority.

Maximum sentence: Three month ban.

23. Bribery of a Government Official
Attempting to bribe an official in government, whether with money, power, or blackmail, to perform an action that would be considered unlawful.

25. Threatening Conduct
Using threats, blackmail, or other similar threatening measures in order to exercise unlawful coercion towards another person.

Maximum sentence: Three month ban.

26. Civil Rights Violation
Unlawfully damaging, limiting or preventing the lawful exercise of any person’s rights as guaranteed under the Constitution of Cynosure.

Maximum sentence: One month ban and/or loss of ability to hold public office per section 10.

27. Illegal Recruitment
(a) Sending unauthorized recruitment telegrams, or authorized telegrams with unauthorized edits;
(b) Recruiting in violation of NationStates rules, or in violation of any other Spiritan statute or treaty;
(c) Falsely asserting to have sent any amount of recruitment telegrams;
(d) Sabotaging recruitment efforts in any other way.

Maximum sentence: One month ban.

28. Contempt of Court
(a) Disrupting the order of the Court;
(b) Derailing Court proceedings;
(c) Posting in the Court forum without invitation or in an inappropriate manner;
(d) Failing to execute or follow a Court sentence;
(e) Failing to follow an order of the Court.
(f) The Presiding Justice shall give a fair warning before making a finding of contempt.
(g) In cases under subsections (d) or (e), the sentence may be repeated until the offender complies with the Court’s order.
(h) Contempt of Court does not require a trial to be held, but a finding of contempt by a single Justice is appealable to the full Court.

Maximum sentence: Two week ban.

29. Perjury
(i) Intentionally misleading or providing false testimony or evidence to the Court;
(ii) Fabricating or falsifying evidence to be presented in a Court hearing.

Maximum sentence: One month ban.

30. Chronic Misdemeanors
(a) Demonstrating continuous disregard for the law by continually committing Misdemeanors.
(b) The Court shall not convict under this provision unless the offender has committed the same misdemeanor at least twice within one year, or has committed at least three misdemeanors within one year.

Maximum sentence: Two week ban

Misdemeanors

31. There shall be a one month statute of limitations on misdemeanors.

32. Defamation
(a) Communicating to a third party, or publicly publishing, a matter carrying a false imputation about another;
(b) Being reckless as to any harm that may be caused as a result of such communication or publication; and
(c) Being reckless as to the falsity of the imputation.

Maximum sentence: Two week ban.

33. Obscenity
(a) Using, in excess, obscene or derogatory language; or
(b) Posting obscene, offensive, or inappropriate material, including but not limited to emoticons, images and user profile content.

Maximum sentence: One week ban.

34. Spamming
Excessive or useless posting, except in areas designated for such posting in such a way that it is disruptive in the context of the conversation.

Maximum sentence: One week ban.

35. Violation of RGP Rules
A violation of the RGP Rules as dictated by the Senate to ensure the proper governance of RGP in the region.

Maximum sentence: One week ban.

36. Governmental Contempt
(a) Posting in a government office in a manner deemed impolite or inappropriate; or
(b) Posting in the Senate without invitation and/or in a manner deemed impolite or unparliamentary.

Maximum sentence: Three day ban.

37. Electoral Sabotage
Changing one’s vote in an election for public office following the voting period and before the results have been published.

Maximum sentence: One week ban and/or loss of ability to hold public office per section 10 not exceeding one month.

Clarifications

38. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit the power of the Grand Master and the Cynosure Order to protect the forum from content that violates the forum Terms of Use, as explicitly guaranteed by Section 4.2.1 of the Constitution of Cynosure.

39. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to be RGP in nature, and all offences outlined in this Act shall be prosecuted through the NRP courthouse.

Severability

40. If any provision of this Act becomes illegal, invalid, or unenforceable, that shall not affect the legality, validity, or enforceability of any other provision of this Act.

41. It is the intention of the Senate that these offenses are to apply consistently with rights guaranteed under the Constitution of Cynosure.